Scott Walker's donors are reportedly panicking as his campaign flounders

After a borderline nonexistent performance in Wednesday night's Republican debate, Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) plans to assuage donors' fears by focusing his campaign more squarely on Iowa, the first state to vote in the 2016 presidential race, he said in a conference call with donors Thursday. Supporters were concerned when Walker ranked dead-last in speaking time among a field of 11 candidates, The Associated Press reports.

Donor Stanley Hubbard, a media mogul who has given $100,000 to pro-Walker groups this year, told the AP he will start supporting Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie as well. Other billionaire donors, like Houston Texans owner Robert McNair, are also spreading the wealth to other presidential candidates.

Walker's campaign reportedly also owes more than $100,000 in debts to campaign vendors, according to an anonymous AP source. Amid all of the uncertainty, some supporters are pushing for Walker to make staffing changes, The Washington Post reports, though Walker said that topic didn't come up on the call with about 80 major donors.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"For some reason, the people I'm close to, they aren't getting excited about [Walker]," Hubbard said. "And I don't know why. He's saying the right things."